You’ve probably noticed COVID is starting to spread again now that school is back in session and many of us are heading back indoors. 

But what’s new this year: an updated COVID vaccine that coincides with back-to-school and pre-empts the holiday travel season. It was expected to be widely available in Minnesota last week, but so far it’s been difficult to find.

According to MDH, as of last month, only 27% of Minnesotans were up to date on their COVID vaccines. Health officials are hoping that statistic will change as the vaccine becomes widely available.

Dr. Tyler Winkelman with Hennepin Healthcare says they hope to get their supply of the new vaccine next week.

“This is something people are really tuned into. It feels a little bit like the early days of COVID with how much interest we are seeing in this year’s vaccine,” he said.

One of the reasons there is some murkiness surrounding the new vaccine availability is that this is the first time it’s being distributed commercially through the private sector as opposed to the government-sponsored rollout we’ve experienced up until this point.